Posts tagged “Winter”

I remember a March or two wherein the sun shone and the clouds parted. Today? Today it dumped snow.

I don’t know about you, but my feeling is that photos like these should not be possible in March. Sure, in Saskatchewan or Minnesota, but in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia? Actually, I think it was warmer in Saskatoon today than it was here in Chilliwack.

It dumped snow over the last couple of days, as though Winter is screaming out to make sure we don’t forget about it as Spring approaches. Thankfully, it’s been mostly on the surrounding mountains. Here’s some fresh snow on Sumas Mountain.

There’s a story I read, once, that Ansel Adams told about his “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico” photo. It is one of the most evocative photos, with the moonlight reflecting off of gravestones and crosses in a cemetery in New Mexico. As he tells it, he was driving away from another photo shoot. He saw the moonlight reflecting off the cemetery as he was driving, so he pulled over to the side of the road, took out his camera and climbed up on his car, set up his tripod, managed a shot and…then the moon moved on. A minute later and he would never have taken this photo.

It’s a cool story because of the timing. Much of what makes a good photo is timing.

Above is my photo taken along the Sumas River. It’s as much of an Adams photo as I’ve taken so far. He will continue to inspire me and I will continue to photograph.

So, this is one of the most frustrating topics from the WordPress Photo Challenge. I don’t know exactly what to do with “Regret“. There are many photo challenges where I’ve felt just that – challenged. But this? Well, here goes.

Now, if I make some decisions that I wish I hadn’t made, take action in the wrong direction and wish that I’d acted in a different way, then I feel regret. If I conduct myself in my relationships in a way that breaks trust, that is unethical or immoral, then I feel regret. If I leave my house without telling my kids and wife that I love them and live everyday as though it might be my last (because it might be), then I will feel regret.

But I see decisions and actions as footsteps in the snow. Let me see if I can explain this. When snow falls, there’s that moment where everything is pristine, untouched. But there comes the time when someone takes a step into the snow. There’s steps and missteps, there’s dirt tracked in and grass that suddenly shows. There are those snow angels that never quite look angelic, but there was an attempt by some little devil to make himself better for a moment.

Here’s the cool part. None of these things are permanent. The snow melts. Or new snow falls and covers everything over. If I live with regrets, I spend all my time thinking about all those things that are left in the snow. Even when they’ve been covered. Even when they’ve faded and disappeared.

My philosophy? Don’t live with regrets. Make more angels. Have fun making new steps in pristine snow.

My entire world has just drastically changed, literally speaking. The snow that has shut down my city for the last four days just turned to freezing rain. The temperature in the clouds is warm enough to be raining, but the temperature on the ground is four degrees below zero. What that means is that everything is coated in a thick layer of ice. I snapped this in my driveway because I liked the way the light was playing off the ice coating my car. Also because I have no desire to drive anywhere until the temperature heads north of zero.

What is beautiful, however, is how the entire visible world outside my window has this unbroken, unsullied, pristine shininess. So shiny…